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Barnacle Bart does the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge!

Hi everyone! When I was nominated to do the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, I thought it would be of greater value to do it in character so that even after the hype ended, the video, this post and especially the awareness would continue to live on as part of this website.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), often referred to as “Lou Gehrig’s Disease,” is a progressive neuro-degenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. Over time, the ability of the brain to control muscle movement is lost. Patients in the later stages of the disease may become totally paralyzed.

I spoke to a friend of mine and he was very concerned that once the ALS challenge hype ended, people would be desensitized to the disease and the cause. Even as we speak, there are many who simply skip over all the ALS challenge videos they come across. If you’ve seen one, you’ve seen 99% of them. This can lead to a negative reaction from the world once the fad passes.

“Why should I donate to ALS? Don’t you remember the ALS Ice Bucket thingy!?” they might say. “They raised so much money with that! They don’t need any more help!”

That is what I would like to avoid. There are many diseases and illnesses out there that desperately require funding for research and more awareness in the general public. Think about it for a moment. Why do we know about how bad cancer is? It is because they are constantly advertising and fundraising. Is that a bad thing? No! But think of all the other terrible diseases that do NOT receive this level of attention. The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge has been a great way to spread the word but it won’t continue forever. Please take a moment learn about ALS and REMEMBER it.

Note: I was nervous so I accidentally jumbled the websites alsa.org and als.ca into als.org which happens to be the New York chapter. Oops! My donation was actually to als.ca if that matters to anyone. 🙂 Feel free to visit and donate to any of those websites!